N.B. global frame of reference -
Music, Literature, the Visual Arts, Landscape, Current Affairs.
A special emphasis on Dorset and Greece, plus other countries where I've lived and worked (and others which I visit regularly or know well) - Jim.

"NHS cuts 'planned across England' (BBC News) - "The BBC has seen draft sustainability and transformation plans (STPs) which propose ward closures, cuts in bed numbers and changes to A&E and GP care in 44 areas. There have been no consultations on the plans so far. NHS England, which needs to find £22bn in efficiency savings by 2020-21, said reorganising local services is essential to improve patient care".

"It comes as no surprise that islands (especially the tropical kind) and songs are exquisitely bound in a heavily nuanced, romantic, and bucolic embrace that the marketing industry has sought to capitalize, captured, for example in the exotic nostalgia of Harry Belafonte's "Jamaica Farewell" (1956)". Island Songs, A Global Repertoire, edited by Godfrey Baldacchino, The Scarecrow Press, 2011).

I suppose that Harry Belafonte's "Island in the Sun" could also have been mentioned as an example.

I have recently been suffering from a bout of island nostalgia (islomania?), not always for islands that I have ever visited, but a kind of generalised xeniteia regarding islands everywhere, big or small, tropical or Northern European, in the Mediterranean, Atlantic, Baltic Sea or Pacific Ocean. But I wouldn't call it "exotic nostalgia", and I don't blame the marketing industry...instead let's praise the talented singers, songwriters, musicians, and all the people who created those that are traditional folk-songs.

Some of my favourite island songs (and the interpretations I prefer, not all on YouTube or Spotify):

"Every morning the writer should go to the window, look out and remind himself of this fact: aside from his own species, not one thing he sees - not one bird, tree or stone - has in its possession the name he gives it".

In a four-part series, Louise Cooper considers the financial and emotional dimensions to the most important decisions we make in our lives.

For many, the forties and fifties is a time when you have the greatest number of financial responsibilities, as you're supporting your children and often these days, your ageing parents. The trend has given this generation a new nickname, 'the sandwich generation'.

And that's the simple model. It's in these two decades, that an increasing number of people are starting new relationships, giving rise to another new term, the 'blended family' which brings the complexities of managing money and relationships into sharp focus.

In this episode, Louise speaks to families and experts about the pressure of caring for children and parents, and the delicate balance of blended family finances.

Monday, 22 August 2016

"A Bosnian pine (Pinus heldreichii) growing in the highlands of northern Greece has been dendrocronologically dated to be more than 1,075 years old, says a team of scientists from Stockholm University (Sweden), the University of Mainz (Germany) and the University of Arizona (USA). This makes it currently the oldest-known living tree in Europe".

"It is one of more than a dozen individuals of millennial age living in a treeline forest in the Pindos mountains".

Sunday, 21 August 2016

From Kathimerini (in Greek) - a regulatory framework is needed urgently, as a result of unacceptable interference in paths for walkers. More respect for nature called for, maintenance of signs, removal of trash.

A nostalgic soundscape - BBC Radio 4 - Bells on Sunday - from St. Mary the Virgin, Ilminster, Somerset, a large Minster church. "There have been five bells in the tower from medieval times, augmented to six in 1861 and to eight in 1907. We hear all eight bells ringing here, Grandsire Triples".

Saturday, 20 August 2016

I have been re-reading Peter Calvocoressi's "The British Experience 1945-75" (first published 1978), in particular his account of the events leading up to Britain's entry into the EEC.

I was reminded of how much our lives and expectations have changed since then, in his concluding section, 'Notes Towards a Definition of Britain' . His first observation is as follows:

"In Britain a man, or a woman, may go to an apparatus in a wall in a street, insert a card, wait for about half a minute, receive £10 in cash from the apparatus and walk away with it. He may do this in broad daylight or in the dark. This is remarkable".

"Protecting valuable coastal ecosystems should be a priority for a country like Greece, which has with nearly 14,000 kilometers of coastline, but just 6 percent of Greek national waters are designated as protected in the European Union’s Natura 2000 network. The Environment Ministry has recently taken steps to make up for this oversight – albeit belatedly – by putting forward 1.93 million hectares of marine areas for inclusion in the network, among them the Gulf of Corinth, the sea around Crete, the coasts of Paxoi, Pylos and Andros and the sea between Kavala and Thasos".

I wish I could be there. I contributed the following piece, to be drawn upon as appropriate. I hope it may be of interest to others who cannot be present at the book launches in Corfu or Pisa.

A personal account of collaboration, based on an email exchange between December 8, 2006 and 31 May, 2014.

I’ve already written my personal tribute to Raul (16 June, 2014), who died on June 9, 2014, so I will try not to repeat myself here. It has been published on several web-sites, including (in Italian translation) on http://www.raulaike.it/.

Raul and I first met at the Christmas Arts and Craft Fair at Dassia, Corfu, in November 2005. Raul had copies of his CD “Emails to Emily” for sale. We must have exchanged CDs - it seems I gave him a copy of my blues CD, “On the Memphis Road!” recorded at the Sun Studios in Memphis.

The first email I received from Raul was on 8th December 2006. “I have listened to your disc, which is really well done, considering it’s live and in single takes. I hope you had an opportunity to listen to the one I gave you, I really would like to have your opinion about it. I hope we could work together in the future…”

Raul was not the type to give false praise or compliments. And, to be frank, at the time I wasn’t into his kind of synthesised computer-composed music either, so my initial response to “Emails to Emily” wasn’t much more enthusiastic than his about my CD, but I certainly saw possibilities for future creative collaboration. I soon became a great admirer of his musicianship and all his albums and compositions.

Over the years my role and input to Raul’s projects would be in the form of editorial assistance, making suggestions, fixing faulty English language grammar, word order, and choice of words, making modest improvements to song-lyrics, but it would also extend to sending him some of my own previously published and unpublished poems for possible setting to music or for professional arrangement and orchestration. He always brought fresh and innovative ideas to the sound and structure of a song.

We would also gig together on a number of occasions, at small festivals or fund-raising events, after rehearsing in his studio at Sinarades. Raul was always generous with his time, supportive and tolerant of musicians with relatively limited musical know-how or technique.

Although Raul was incredibly versatile, and could play almost anything I asked for on his guitar, we had very different approaches to song-writing. My approach began with words: “words before music” – metrical adjustments later, once a suitable melody had emerged. Raul’s approach was definitely “music before words”, with metrics being of paramount importance. He began with the music. He was quite strict about that, although at other times he did his best (ie very successfully) to create interesting music for my poems and lyrics. His first album, Emails to Emily, we should not forget, consisted of adventurous settings and arrangements of poems by Emily Dickinson.

I could also be (diplomatically) critical at times, if for instance he overused the electronic wah-wah guitar pedal effect, or if he overlooked the need for studio-coaching of his selected vocalists (nearly always non-native-English-language speakers), who could have easily been helped to correct their stress-patterns, pronunciation, clarity and intonation, to enhance the listener’s interpretation and appreciation of the words of the song.

Apart from our regular get-togethers in Sinarades or Kefalomandouko (Corfu Town) – many meetings, working on a sustained and fully collaborative basis on all the songs for “Neuromantics” (see the CD sleeve-notes), we had a frequent exchange of emails from the end of 2006 until 31 May, 2014.

I supplied some of own poems and song-lyrics for the album “Cooking Friends” ("The Nomad”, “Where’s that Good Samaritan Gone?”, “The Nights Are Drawing In”); for “Failed Expectations “(“The World’s Her Oyster”- a lyric I had originally written about the death of Amy Winehouse); for “Minimanimalia, Canzoniere Animinimalista”(“The First Lyre””, “21 Dolphins”, “Confessions of a Wanton Boy”- I also had some input to other songs); Raul also did me the honour and great favour of agreeing to my request for him to try setting, orchestrating or re-arranging other poems and songs I had composed in the past for my own simple folk guitar accompaniment, eg “Thirty-One”,“Cowrie Shell”, “Martial Law”, “Greek Girl”, “Taking Care of Business” and “The Song of the Shoulder-Shrugger”.

Apart from these, we collaborated, mostly by email, on polishing various songs included in “Necromantics – Beyond” (eg “Backstage”,” Psychopomp Lullaby”, “The Monk”, “The Soul Collector”- my input being mostly in the form of small fixes or minor additions to the lyrics, but Raul would write on 11 June, 2010, in response to my suggested tweaks or fixes to The Soul Collector, “Thank you, I will remember you in my prayers”). Klaus Knopp was apparently also happy with the small changes made to some of his excellent if stylistically challenging lyrics. See also the sleeve notes of the album, with my introduction.

I was often away from Corfu, in the UK, Australia or Zagori (Epirus). I have only recently been reading through our old emails, but I think some exchanges are quite revealing.

One translation I attempted for Raul was not very satisfactory, I admit. I was visiting Australia, trying, in some haste, to make a little sense of the lyric about a small fish, a silver-sided sand smelt (Atherina in Greek), rather than worrying about the metrics at that stage. I sent my hasty rough draft to Raul on 5th November, 2011:

Atherina

On the rock where I sat, idly fishing one day,
I heard a sweet voice from not far away,
Very softly it sang – the sea was not deep-
Of the sweetness of life, but I started to weep.

Leave it frayed, full of holes, the torn fishing net,
To let the silversides swim (through) without having to fret,
To dart to and fro, vagabonds in the sea,
To feed in the shallows, little rascals like me!

Raul replied the same day that it was “ok as a first draft, the metrics though have to be completely arranged. Maybe it would be better for you not to stick so much to the original version, there’s no need to do it. Feel free to write about anything else, if it feels better. Just try to write something about some kind of love, with some sort of an optimistic view, so we can use it as the last song, sort of hope message”.

I wasn’t very good at getting to grips with Raul’s subtle metrics, unless he provided me with a template. Maybe his arrangements were too sophisticated for someone who liked a solid r ‘n’ b or rock ‘n’ roll beat. I had no problem with metrics when writing my own poems. And as I’ve said, for me the words come first!

Raul’s interpretation of “Atherina”, in the Greek version which he sings himself, is included on the Minimanimalia CD, and is beautiful as it is. There is also a much better English translation than my own included in the book.

On 25 March 2012, Raul wrote, about “The Black Swan”, “I’m not sure where to put it, because it fits both Failed Expectations AND the Animinimalistic Songbook which will follow…Maybe you want to write something for this future project?”

On most occasions Raul was happy with my emailed contributions, encouraging comments, suggestions, and occasional input of ideas, often fairly minimal, but he would respond that ‘they made things sound better’ - for instance in relation to songs like “Pâté de Foie Gras”, which I believe I may have first suggested or even drafted in part, and “The Hermit Crab and the Stray Cat”, “Hedgehog on the Edge of the Road”, “Criminal Monkeys”.

Raul would often write: “Thanks a lot for your (as usual) precious suggestions”.

I was critical of the wah-wah effect in “A Dog Waiting”:

Jim: “Is the wah wah a woof woof? If not, a slightly lower mix for the wah wah?” (2.11.2012)

Raul: “You’re right about the wah wah (woof woof), but tell me something…what’s wrong between you and the wah wah?” (2.11.2012)

Jim: “The wah wah tends to date the composer…a touch of the late 60s?”

I sent Raul some of my own poems on related topics, for possible inclusion in the Animinimalistic Songbook album, such as “Confessions of a Wanton Boy”. Raul used the concept, title and the first half from my poem (up to “God forgive my genocide”), but added some additional material of his own for the final song version.

My main contribution to Raul’s important posthumous concept album about animals came in the form of other poems originally published in my collection “Corfu Blues” (Ars Interpres, 2006), which Raul later set to music and orchestrated for his unfinished demos of “The First Lyre” and “21 Dolphins”.

On 25 October 2012, I sent the following email to Raul:

“Are you interested in a song about dolphins? This is based on a haiku (the chorus) I wrote in Corfu in 1967, and a draft poem, much changed, that I wrote in Halkidiki in 1983 when the Ministry of Agriculture, in order to protect the fishing industry and the nation's nets, declared dolphins as pests.
They paid out 600 drachmas then for every dolphin nose (or beak), that was cut off and presented to the officials.

Chorus:

Twenty one dolphins danced in the harbour.The teacher kept on talking.

But the Minister says that dolphins are pests.
The Minister says they're no longer our friends.

Dolphins are outlawed, they're not welcome guests
They're no longer allowed near the ships or the shore.

They may have their own language
But they damage our nets.

The fishermen kill them,
But don't get upset.

Any dolphin brought ashore
Will have its nose (beak) chopped off with a slice,

So no fisherman can be paid
For the same (dead) dolphin twice.

There's a fair fixed amount
For each dolphin nose.

We need such a proof, to prevent all abuse-
And please remember, that dolphins are foes.

They're foes to all fishermen,
So don't be a fool.

The Minister says
We should teach it in school.

CHORUS

Twenty one dolphins danced in the harbour.The teacher kept on talking.”

As I said, it all began with my little “Corfu Haiku”, written when I was a teacher on Corfu in 1967 and later selected by Iron Press and the British Haiku Society for inclusion in “The Haiku Hundred”, Iron Press, 1992 (new edition, The Haiku 100, The Historic Collection, Iron Press, 2015:

“Twenty-one dolphins
danced in the harbour
the teacher kept on talking”.

I had little idea how far Raul had progressed on setting the dolphin poems/song of mine to music. I only found out when I called on Gioia in Sinarades on 25 July, 2016 and received a copy of the book and CD. The last time I had heard from Raul on the subject was in October 2012: “The dolphins are waiting for the right inspiration”.

Raul consulted his friend Stephanie in Canada (who sang “Man Friday” in “Neuromantics”) about my poem “The First Lyre”; she thought the lyrics were “incredible”. She wanted to know about the inspiration for the song. I replied to Raul on 10th October, 2012:

“Thanks! That raises my spirits, I think it is quite a good poem (it was broadcast on the BBC). I think I was inspired by the thought or image of an ancient Greek lyre, and the tortoise shell, which got me thinking about all the other animals who suffered to contribute to the cause and creation of music and the fame of Orpheus. The thought that suffering and even cruelty can lie behind much artistic creation, including lyric poetry”.

Again, I only heard Raul’s setting of my poem for the first time after Gioia gave me the book and CD in Corfu in July 2016.

I was very glad that Raul took up my suggestion of setting Francesco Petrarch’s wonderful sonnet, Una Candida Cerva (my email of 30/1/2013); on 22 February 2013, after he sent me some (flawed) English translations he’d found, I wrote “I thought you would set the original Italian (more beautiful!)…Can you find some other translations… or even try the Italian original?”

Raul was so modest, perhaps he thought it might be considered presumptuous of him to set a sonnet by Petrarch in Italian. I am so glad that he did follow my suggestion. The words came first on some occasions! (See also this posting).

I am thrilled with the book and CD, “Minimanimalia”, a true labour of love and enduring tribute to Raul. I congratulate Gioia and all her collaborators, technical and artistic, for achieving something I had imagined could never be achieved. The illustrations are superb. The animals will be eternally grateful. I hope these extracts from email exchanges between Raul and Jim will shed extra light on the genesis and development of some of the songs.

Extracts from more of Raul’s emails:

On The Hermit Crab and the Stray Cat:

“I’m thinking of a new song, maybe you can help. It’s about a hermit crab…I’d like to make a parallel between the hermit crab and the words of a poet. They look for the same thing after all: a place to stay. The hermit needs a shell for shelter, the poet’s words look for a different place, the heart of a man, where they can settle to give new life to a (sometimes) dead thing”.

“I will have to find some music, it’s getting more and more difficult, I don’t know if I can reach the Beatles White Album (20 songs!)”

On Robin’s Nest:

“The second one is just an idea for a song about bird’s nests. In reality it is one of those naughty songs with a double meaning. Basically it’s about a friend of ours, Robin, who runs a bar called Robin’s in Agios Gordios”.

On Guinea Pigs:

“I’m thinking about a new song about guinea pigs. The general idea is that mankind should build a monument to all the simple lives that are sacrificed for our benefit, to show respect and compassion”.

On Hedgehog on the Edge of the Road :

“The idea of the song is now: very melodical from the beginning to the end of the first verse. Then it moves up a bit in the second verse, with an odd rhythm. From the third verse on it becomes a sort of soul acid song”.

On Prayer:

Prelude: Invocation.

It should go something like: Is there anybody going to listen to my prayer for the ones who cannot speak their mind? This is just the idea

Second part: Complaint.

Reporting of animal abuse (whether for their meat, fur, experiments in labs, hard work carrying stuff or attached to a chain, somebody even enjoys their suffering)

Third part: Confession.

Denounces the most evil of all animals: MAN!?

Conclusion: Invocation reprise.

On Pâté de Foie Gras

From Raul:

“To make a good use of the spirit of the mountain, you think you could work on Foie gras a bit? Maybe you could point out the fact that geese are kept with their feet nailed to the ground, so they won’t move! Man is capable of incredibly disgusting things, and he’s not ashamed of it. “

From Jim:

“Are they really kept with their feet nailed to the ground? That's horrific. I didn't know that. Can you double check that before I work on the verse?”

From Raul:

“You’re right, there’s no real evidence, maybe it’s something which was done by individual peasants, rather than the industrial standard procedure”.

From Jim:

“You are a militant animal activist. The French will be after you with a long tube”.

From Raul:

“If they catch me I will tell them that YOU wrote the lyrics…. Eh eh ….”

Email from Raul, 25 March 2012:

“I didn’t pay attention to the parade in the village, I’m allergic to national pride, religion and families, like in the good old times. I prefer to write songs, so I don’t have to think about it”.

On Atherina: From Raul, 9 November 2007

“I really start missing our meetings in Kefalomandouko, where we could work together, exchange opinions and laugh. It was fun, for me at least. For the moment, don’t worry about this last song, just keep doing your things. If you wish, you could send me some of your poems, so I can see whether I can put some music to them. I can’t promise anything though, I’ve never worked this way. I’m slowly turning into an animal, because I’m spending most of the time with my dogs and cats and we don’t have much to say to one another because we’ve been together too long now, and we don’t have the same interests anyhow.”

A suggestion: if the fund is intended for "community facilities which benefit the whole district", and not just for leisure facilities, how about earmarking a substantial part for Dorset County Hospital, for improved maternity and end-of-life care?

Some EU politicians doubt that Prime Minister May really wants to leave the EU.

"The British government isn't legally bound to the referendum," German EU lawmaker Elmar Brok said in an interview. "Britain will never leave," Austrian Interior Minister Hans-Jörg Schelling told Germany's "Handelsblatt" newspaper last month. "Five years from now, they'll still be a member."

The case for delaying Brexit, The Economist - "there are also powerful political reasons to pause before invoking Article 50. Its provisions are biased against would-be leavers. It gives the other 27 EU countries the right to determine the terms for Brexit without Britain even having a vote on them".

Some EU politicians doubt that Prime Minister May really wants to leave the EU.

"The British government isn't legally bound to the referendum," German EU lawmaker Elmar Brok said in an interview. "Britain will never leave," Austrian Interior Minister Hans-Jörg Schelling told Germany's "Handelsblatt" newspaper last month. "Five years from now, they'll still be a member."

The case for delaying Brexit, The Economist - "there are also powerful political reasons to pause before invoking Article 50. Its provisions are biased against would-be leavers. It gives the other 27 EU countries the right to determine the terms for Brexit without Britain even having a vote on them".

"A memorable occasion when I felt that raw sense of connection was in Vitsa, a small village in Zagori, at the three-day festival that is held every year there for dekapentaugousto (the feast for the dormition of the Virgin Mary, celebrated every year all over Greece on the 15th August). This panegyri takes place under the beautiful platanos (plane tree) that dominates the main square and which imbues the whole festival experience with a rather magical quality".

Saturday, 13 August 2016

"THE first families to emigrate to Australia came from Dorset" - Patsy Trench.

"As Dorset gears itself for its annual Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival it is interesting to note that so many of the earliest free settlers to make their lives in the penal colony of New South Wales came from this same county" - www.patsytrench.com

"The universe of technology, by itself, is not a bad thing, but considered as the most important mechanical agency of civilisation, (it) finishes by provoking a sort of perversion, at the same time in the mind and in morality" (quoted in Camus, Philosophe: To Return to our Beginnings, Matthew Sharpe).

View from Dorchester (Trevor Bevins) - Last minute plea to include ‘affordable’ housing in prison plans (print edition article August 10, 2016) - "Alastair Simpson is among those who spoke to the Dorchester Labour Housing Forum, desperate for affordable housing given the high property prices and private rents in the town". “Being Dorchester born and raised I’m extremely disappointed not to be able to afford to live in my town. I had high hopes for the prison site. After the luxury developments at Brewery Square I thought there might be a chance for us. As if Dorchester needs more luxury apartments for second homers or retirees. It is exactly that market which drives up property prices in the county and drives out those who provide the basis for the local society to work. There are complaints about the lack of young people in the county, but this is a vicious circle that pushes us away; we cannot afford to live in the place we grew up.” Chair of Dorchester Labour Barry Thompson said: “They should reject the application until it includes an affordable element".

Fears for pensions as gilt yields turn negative - "British government bond yields traded in negative territory on Wednesday, compounding fears that a global collapse in government borrowing costs has tipped the UK’s pension industry into a funding crisis". Financial Times (subscribe to read in full).

"The Mediterranean-style diet (MedDiet) involves substantial intake of fruits, vegetables, and fish, and a lower consumption of dairy, red meat, and sugars. Over the past 15 years, much empirical evidence supports the suggestion that a MedDiet may be beneficial with respect to reducing the incidence of cardiovascular disease, cancer, metabolic syndrome, and dementia. A number of cross-sectional studies that have examined the impact of MedDiet on cognition have yielded largely positive results"."Eat like the Greeks" as one tabloid paper summarised the findings...

"Experts say eating like the Greeks with lashings of olive oil can protect against the onset of devastating mental decline. The cure-all regime has long been considered a good way to stave off heart disease. Now scientists have said it is good for the brain too, whatever your age".

In my experience, the Mediterranean diet, at least in Greece, involves a heavy consumption of red meat, feta cheese, and sugars.

Tom Watson: “There are Trots that have come back to the party, and they certainly don’t have the best interests of the Labour party at heart. They see the Labour party as a vehicle for revolutionary socialism, and they’re not remotely interested in winning elections, and that’s a problem. But I don’t think the vast majority of people that have joined the Labour party and have been mobilised by the people that are in Momentum are all Trots and Bolsheviks. Some months ago, I described Momentum as ‘a bit of a rabble’, and although leading lights in Momentum privately acknowledged to me that they were a bit of a rabble, it caused great offence to everyone that had signed up to Momentum. Some of these people are deeply interested in political change, in building a more equal society, and are just on a journey in politics that they’re new to, and I don’t want them to feel that I’m labelling them because I’m not. But there are some old hands twisting young arms in this process, and I’m under no illusions about what’s going on. They are caucusing and factionalising and putting pressure where they can, and that’s how Trotsky entryists operate. Sooner or later, that always end up in disaster. It always ends up destroying the institutions that are vulnerable, unless you deal with it.”

172. For sheer love
of humanity one occasionally embraces some random person (because one cannot
embrace everyone). But this is the one thing one must not let the random person
know…

(Man umarmt aus Menschenliebe bisweilen einen
Beliebigen (weil man nicht Alle umarmen kann): aber gerade Das darf man dem
Beliebigen nicht verrathen.....)
I thought some of these aphorisms and observations quite apposite or amusing. Then I read on, and found some distinctly unacceptable, ratherabusive and wrong-headed comments about the English (the British?).

Nietzsche had no respect for Bacon, Hobbes, Hume, Locke and
Carlyle, it would seem. He considered the intellects of Darwin, John Stuart Mill and Herbert
Spencer as mediocre.

From Beyond Good and
Evil -

Eighth Article, Peoples and Fatherlands

252. “These Englishmen: they are not a philosophical race…It
is characteristic of such an unphilosophical race that they cling firmly to
Christianity; they need its
discipline to become “moralized”, to become “humanized”…For keen noses even the
Christianity of England has a typically British odour of spleen and alcoholic
excess…Let us not forget that we already owe to
Englishmen a total depression of the European spirit, brought about by their
profound mediocrity…European commonness,
the plebeianism of modern ideas, belongs to England...But what is insulting in even the most human Englishman is his lack of music, to speak metaphorically (and also literally!). There is no rhythm, no dance, in the motions of his soul or his body. He doesn’t even have a desire for rhythm and dance, for “music”.

Marianne Cowan, the translator, suggests in her introduction that there is "a good deal of good-natured playfulness in this book..."Peoples and Fatherlands" has a tongue-in-cheek flavour in its plural of fatherland".

An article with which I can't agree, at least about Paxos, always a favourite island (although I preferred it before it was "discovered" by the sailing flotillas and the luxury motor-launches and cruisers):

Monday, 8 August 2016

"On 23 June, Britain was hit by a political earthquake. Within hours of the EU referendum result, the prime minister had resigned, the pound was falling and Westminster was reeling. So how and why did this political revolution happen - and how does it stand to reshape Britain's politics? In this film, the BBC's political editor Laura Kuenssberg tells the inside story of how David Cameron's referendum plan backfired - and Vote Leave won. Talking to the politicians and the people who ran the campaigns, she finds out how a perfect storm brewed, which would not just end David Cameron's premiership, but reshape Britain's place in the world".

Today, 13 August 2016, BBC 4 iPlayer -"Felixstowe is home to the UK's largest container port - one of the biggest in Europe. How will Brexit affect the town and British trade more broadly?" From 51.10 point

"In the first of this new series Kathryn Tickell and Hannabiell Sanders turn the skyline of Newcastle into music. At the old Baltic flour mill by the Tyne they look upstream, where the great curves of the Sage Concert Hall and the bridges meet, to be end-stopped by the square solidity of the castle, from which the city gets its name".

Hannabiell Sander's finished work from 15.50 point

Kathryn Tickell's finished work from 22.00 point.

Kathryn Tickell is steeped in the traditional music of Northumberland. She plays the region's indigenous instrument, the Northumbrian Smallpipes. So her music, she says, "always speaks in the accent of the Northeast."

Hannabiell Sanders' accent is very different. Her father is Jamaican and she was born in the American South. How would she describe her music? "Psychedelic Afro-funk jazz fusion!"

I wish there was a good CD recording of Graham Collier's composition inspired by the island of Paxos, Greece. It's in three parts, like Kathryn Tickell's composition (The Sage, The Bridges, The Castle). Graham Collier's "Paxos" three-part composition: Lakka, Logos and Gaios.

"These (older) people were brought up in a postwar culture which stipulated that owning properties, for instance, was a long-term, unshakeable investment. Now they don’t know what to do with these properties. They can’t sell them because no one will buy them, while the property tax, known as ENFIA, is draining their resources. Their fortune, once a source of security, is now weighing heavily on their shoulders".

From The Spectator Archive - MARGINAL COMMENT, 21 March 1952:"No, I am certain that I could not really like anybody who did not really like the Greeks",

"There is, however, one natural element in Greece which always surprises me with its immutability : the Greek national character. No nation on earth has, within the last half century, endured such terrible calamities. Since 1897 the Greeks have experienced six major wars, four foreign invasions, two civil wars—the first distracting, the second fiercely destructive—all manner of coups d'etat and pronunciamientos, several revolts, three serious revolutions, and a succession of economic catastrophes such as would have shattered any weaker breed. Their villages have been burnt and their children kidnapped; the most frightful murders have been committed; yet here they are, their railways working splendidly, their roads repaired, their merchant navy almost restored to its pre-war prosperity, starting to argue passionately again whether more might not be done with American aid to canalise the waters of the Vardar. We all know that the Greeks are very brave; we all know that they are highly intelligent; but it is their astonishing resilience that, more than any other quality, compels my deep respect. Along the line that runs from Salonika to Athens a few block-houses and military posts still remain from the civil war. The soldiers have amused them- selves in their spare moments by marking out in white-washed stones the battle-honours of their regiments. Victories against the Bulgarians in Macedonia, victories against the Turks in Thrace, victories against the Albanians in Illyria, victories against the Italians in Northern Epirus; but these lists, scarring the mountain-side with the motto "Long Live the King !", always begin with three lapidary names —" Marathon," "Salamis","Plataea". No, I am certain that I could not really like anybody who did not really like the Greeks".